''The Big Bad Swim'' is a 2006 American independent film about a group of adults who enroll in an adult education beginner's swim class. The film takes place in southeastern

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, in the town of

Uncasville Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ...

. It premiered at the 2006

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

and was released on DVD in North America on July 24, 2007.

Plot

The film is an ensemble comedy-drama that focuses on the group of people, each of whom is afraid of the water, that join an adult swim class. Amy Pierson (

Paget Brewster Paget Valerie Brewster (, ; born March 10, 1969) is an American actress and singer. She was first recognized for her recurring role as Kathy on the fourth season of the NBC sitcom ''Friends''. Her breakthrough role came as FBI Supervisory Speci ...

) is a calculus teacher going through a divorce with her husband, Paul (

Grant Aleksander Grant Aleksander Kunkowski (born August 6, 1960), better known as Grant Aleksander, is an American actor. Early life Aleksander was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was the youngest of three brothers. He was well known at McDonogh School as both ...

). Noah Owens (

Jeff Branson Jeffrey Dale Branson (born March 10, 1977)"Catching up with....Jeff Branson". ''Soap Opera Digest''. July 8, 2013. p. 45. is an American actor. He is known for his role as Ronan Malloy on ''The Young and the Restless'', Jonathan Lavery on '' Al ...

) is the teacher of the swim class who is battling depression until he meets Jordan (

Jess Weixler Jess Weixler (born ) is an American actress. She played Dawn O'Keefe in the comedy-horror film ''Teeth (2007 film), Teeth'' and Jordan in the comedy ''The Big Bad Swim''. Early life Weixler graduated in 1999 from Atherton High School, Louisvil ...

), a beautiful casino dealer/exotic dancer who wants to learn how to swim. Other members in the class include a cop (Kevin Porter Young), a cocky woman who already knows how to swim (

Liza Lapira Liza Lapira (born December 3, 1981) is an American actress. She played Kianna in the 2008 film '' 21'', Special Agent Michelle Lee in the CBS police procedural series '' NCIS'' and Ivy, Topher Brink's assistant in ''Dollhouse''. Lapira has also c ...

), and a married couple (

Todd Susman Todd Susman (born January 17, 1947) is an American actor. Early life A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Susman graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in 1965. Career Susman has appeared in over one hundred different television series and ...

and Darla Hill). Jordan's brother, David (Avi Setton) and his obnoxious friend Hunter (

Ricky Ullman Raviv Chanan "Ricky" Ullman ( he, רביב אולמן; born 24 January 1986) is an Israeli-American actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Phil Diffy, the main character in the Disney Channel series '' Phil of the Future'' ...

) are trying to make a documentary about her.

Reception

Reviews for the film have been positive. , three of the four critics reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

were positive. It won the award for Best American Independent Film at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival.

References

External links

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Variety Review by Ken EisnerSeattle Weekly Review by Frank PaivaCinematical Review by Christopher Campbell
2006 films American comedy-drama films 2006 comedy-drama films Films set in Connecticut Old Lyme, Connecticut Swimming films 2006 directorial debut films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-comedy-drama-film-stub